Nomura also opened up quite a bit about story and gameplay details in light of all the new information that came from the three Kingdom Hearts 3 E3 2018 trailers. So, let’s dive into what we’ve learned.

Have the Gummi Ship and Abilities Evolved?

Nomura said the ship is “basically the same” as its incarnation in Kingdom Hearts 2 but promised more information is on the way.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Pirates of the Caribbean Screenshots

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Kingdom Hearts 3 Pirates of the Caribbean Screenshots

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Kingdom Hearts 3 Pirates of the Caribbean Screenshots

Kingdom Hearts 3 Pirates of the Caribbean Screenshots

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“So it's basically the same. It is your method to travel between worlds. There will be customization of the Gummi Ship,” Nomura explained. “We do actually have some exploration with Gummi Ships within the game as well. But I do want you to wait for a bit, for more details in the future that we do have planned. This reveal of the Gummi Ship was more to show it was actually in the game.”

As for abilities, Nomura said development was largely based off Kingdom Hearts 2, and called the system of assigning new abilities to Sora and his party “an evolution of sorts” of the system in KH2.

Ratatouille’s Remy Isn’t a Summon, But Will Live in a Familiar World

You may have spotted Sora cooking with Pixar’s Remy in one of the three Kingdom Hearts 3 trailers. Remy isn’t a summon, like Simba or Ariel, but is instead a denizen of Twilight Town. The hub world that first appeared in Kingdom Hearts 2 has periodically popped up in Kingdom Hearts 3 trailers, and will be home to a cooking mini-game with Remy.

Remy with Sora in Kingdom Hearts 3

“So Remy will appear in a mini-game, and I think it's already been assumed by many fans, but he will be in Twilight Town,” Nomura said. “If you bring ingredients to him, you can start this cooking mini-game and you can create food according to the recipe as long as you have gathered enough ingredients for it. If you succeed in creating the food, it'll increase your status.”

Not Every Original Kingdom Hearts World Will Appear

We’ll have to wait to see how else Twilight Town has changed in Kingdom Hearts 3, but it is among the confirmed non-Disney worlds set to appear in Kingdom Hearts 3. The franchise has been home to a number of original worlds — Traverse Town, Radiant Garden, Daybreak Town — and while they’ve often been hubs of big narrative scenes, they won’t all play a big role in KH3.

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“So as for the original worlds, not all the past worlds will appear, but Twilight Town, you can run around quite a bit,” Nomura said. “That is one of those worlds you can do that. We also do have new original locations as well. I think that those will be a little more important to the game than the recurring original worlds.”

Check out the gallery below for all of the confirmed worlds so far.

Every Confirmed Kingdom Hearts 3 World

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Kingdom Hearts 3 inches closer and closer to release, and as Square Enix continues to reveal more about the game, its roster of Disney-inspired worlds also grows. Read on for a look at every confirmed world— and a few major locations within them noted separately because of their importance to the plot — for the upcoming sequel so far.

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Kingdom Hearts 3 inches closer and closer to release, and as Square Enix continues to reveal more about the game, its roster of Disney-inspired worlds also grows. Read on for a look at every confirmed world— and a few major locations within them noted separately because of their importance to the plot — for the upcoming sequel so far.

Every Confirmed Kingdom Hearts 3 World

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Can You Understand Kingdom Hearts 3 If You Haven't Experienced Every Other Entry?

Spanning over 15 years, multiple console life cycles, and entries appearing everywhere from the PS2 to the Game Boy Advance and beyond, there has been a lot of Kingdom Hearts to take in. So much so that Nomura and the development team seem to be taking an approach that won't preclude those who have only played a couple of entries or are just diving in while still rewarding the knowledge of dedicated players.

Speaking specifically about the Master of Masters and the plot of Kingdom Hearts: Back Cover, Nomura said the intention is to keep up the intrigue for players that have experienced every facet of the Kingdom Hearts story.

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“If you know the story that was depicted in Back Cover, you'll kind of always have that in your mind playing Kingdom Hearts 3, knowing that something is happening. I think that does increase that...intrigue while you're playing. But it's not that the game explicitly says something about what happened in Back Cover,” he said.

Each entry of the Kingdom Hearts franchise will seemingly be involved to varying degrees in KH3, and Square Enix ihas released — currently only available in Japanese — recap videos detailing the story so far for those less initiated with the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

The World Nomura Had to Have in Kingdom Hearts 3

One of the biggest reveals of Kingdom Hearts 3 so far was the Toy Story world announcement last year, confirming the introduction of Pixar to the series. Nomura told IGN he’s been wanting Pixar worlds in Kingdom Hearts for awhile, even joking about his demands for including the world of Woody and Buzz in Kingdom Hearts 3, which is where development for the sequel began.

“I've always wanted to have a Pixar world in Kingdom Hearts. I've been telling Disney this from pretty much the start of our project,” Nomura said.

“Not just Kingdom Hearts 3, but Kingdom Hearts in general. When we first started the project for Kingdom Hearts 3, I actually told them I won't make Kingdom Hearts 3 if they don't allow me to use a Pixar world," Nomura continued. "That is definitely a world that I'm really happy to have. We did start development with the Toy Story world as well.”

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Where Are the Final Fantasy Characters?

While Kingdom Hearts 3’s trailers have been replete with new and returning Disney characters, plus some surprising reveals of original KH figures, Final Fantasy has essentially been absent from the sequel’s showings.

Characters from throughout Square Enix’s franchise, which of course Nomura has been heavily involved with, have played important story and gameplay roles in the franchise since the original Kingdom Hearts.

Nomura declined to say whether characters from more recent entries, like Kingdom Hearts XV, will appear in Kingdom Hearts 3, but did offer an explanation for the FF absence so far.

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“...It's a little bit difficult to add Final Fantasy characters into the main storyline for this title,” he said. “Because most of the original Kingdom Hearts characters are going to appear in Kingdom Hearts 3, that's just already too many characters to begin with.”

Speaking of keeping track of all of those characters, Nomura said maintaining their connections with one another correct after all of these years and entries has been one of the most difficult aspects of writing Kingdom Hearts 3.

“...What is the most confusing is that because there's so many characters in this storyline now, it's hard to keep track of who actually met who already,” Nomura said. “So I'm always like ‘OK, who knows who in this situation, and who is meeting this person for the first time?’ That always gets really confusing.”